ALBERT

Description: Back-scattered electron investigations of Argille Scagliose, mudstones from the Barbados forearc sampled during Ocean Drilling Program Leg 110, and the matrix of the Okitsu melange, southwest Japan, indicate a variety of microfabric geometries and deformation mechanisms despite the similarity of their mesoscopic scaly fabrics. In the Okitsu melange, the scaly fabric is the mesoscopic expression of an anastomosing microfabric, whereas the detailed geometry of scaly fabrics is unrelated to the microfabric in the Argille Scagliose and Leg 110 mudstones. Care must be taken in the classification and interpretation of scaly fabrics in light of these data, and future studies should focus on microstructural investigations.

Description: The orientation of shear bands relative to foliations defined by elongated mineral aggregates, is often used to determine the large-scale sense of displacement in ductile faults. Data from contact strain zones at the bases of large overthrust complexes in the Eastern Alps and the Betic Cordilleras demonstrate that there is not always a simple geometrical relation between shear band orientation and sense of vorticity in bulk non-coaxial flow. In addition to single shear band sets that show displacements synthetic with the large-scale displacement, there are single sets with antithetic displacements, and conjugate sets. The last two observations are at variance with published data and interpretations, and cast doubts on the general applicability of shear bands as indicators of large scale flow kinematics.

Description: The western margin of the Tauera Window (Eastern Alps) is defined by a low angle westward dipping fault zone of potently We disp lacement. Ductile deformation of the fault rocks results in a carpet of mylonites up to 400 metres thick. Evidence from shear criteria and the excision of part of the Cretaceous-Tertiary metamorphic edifice both indicate normal displacements, and relative movement of Austroalpine nappe complex towards the west. The Sterzing-Steinach mylonite zone overprints the Alpine nappe edifice. Movements occurred on the cooling path of the Tauern metamorphism, and may be as recent as Middle Miocene. The Kinematics and geometry of the mylonite zone constrain two likely t ectonic explanations that are both compatible with secondary thining of a thick orogenic wedge. (1) Ute the Austroalpine nappe pile due to tectonic unroofing of the Tauern window. (2) Continental escape by east-west stretching of the Alpine orogenic wedge in response to continental collision.

Description: The microstructures and crystal fabrics associated with the development of an amphibolite facies quartzo-feldspathic mylonitic shear zone (Torridon, NW Scotland) have been investigated using SEM electron channelling. Our results illustrate a variety of microstructures and fabrics which attest to a complex shear zone deformation history. Microstructural variation is particularly pronounced at low shear strains: significant intragranular deformation occurs via a domino-faulting style process, whilst mechanical incompatibilities between individual grains result in characteristic grain boundary deformation accommodation microstructures. A sudden reduction in grain size defines the transition to medium shear strains, but many of the boundaries inherited from the original and low shear strain regions can still be recognized and define distinctive bands oriented at low angles to the shear zone margin. Grains within these bands have somewhat steeper preferred dimensional orientations. These domains persist into the high shear strain mylonitic region, where they are oriented subparallel to the shear zone margin and consist of sub-20 μm grains. The microstructures suggest that the principal deformation mechanism was intracrystalline plasticity (with contributions from grain size reduction via dynamic recrystallization, grain boundary migration and grain boundary sliding). Crystal fabrics measured from the shear zone vary with position depending on the shear strain involved, and are consistent with the operation of several crystal slip systems (e.g. prism, basal, rhomb and acute rhomb planes) in a consistent direction (probably parallel to a and/or m). They also reveal the presence of Dauphine twinning and suggest that this may be a significant process in quartz deformation. A single crystal fabric evolution path linking the shear zone margin fabric with the mylonitic fabric was not observed. Rather, the mylonitic fabric reflects the instantaneous fabric which developed at a particular location for a particular shear strain and original parental grain orientation. The mature shear zone therefore consists of a series of deformed original grains stacked on top of each other in a manner which preserves original grain boundaries and intragranular features which develop during shear zone evolution. The stability of some microstructures to higher shear strains, the exploitation of others at lower shear strains, and a continuously evolving crystal fabric, mean that the strain gradient observed across many shear zones is unlikely to be equivalent to a time gradient.

Description: Plastically deformed quartzites from the Betic Movement Zone (Betic Cordilleras, Spain) exhibit microstructures indicative of crystal plasticity on a mineral grain scale. Quartzites with dynamically recrystallized grain sizes larger than 10 μm have strong crystallographic preferred orientations, narrow grain boundaries, little creep damage, and an inverse proportionality of dislocation density and grain size. Mylonites with grain sizes smaller than 10 μm have low crystallographic preferred orientations, wide grain boundaries (up to 1000 Å), abundant creep damage, and decreasing dislocation density with diminishing grain size. This is thought to reflect a clear-cut shift in deformational regimes from dislocation creep to superplastic flow at 10 μm grain size. Superplasticity can be acquired by quartzites which suffer dynamic recrystallization to grain sizes smaller than 10 μm during an initial dislocation creep stage. Dislocation motion is the major accomodating mechanism for strain incompatibilities that arise during grain-boundary sliding in the mylonites.It seems reasonable to estimate flow stresses from unbound dislocation densities and dynamically recrystallized grain sizes in the tectonite specimens. In the mylonites, dynamically recrystallized grain size probably reflects the stress magnitude before the shift in deformational mechanisms, and an estimate for late stage stresses is provided by unbound dislocation densities. In both deformational regimes the flow strength appears to depend on the extent of dynamic recrystallization.